Comments from jflundy

I have come upon several photos of the City Hall Theater marquee which could not be used because of copyright issues, This is the best one i have seen and it is available thanks to Frank Pfuhler. Frank has kindly made vailable about 3000 photos from his collection of traction subjects on Webshots.

View link shows a TARS conduit streetcar on Park Row at City Hall from sometime between 1939 and 1947 as it waits to run back uptown. The City Hall Theater is in the background.
Perhaps someone can make out the movies ‘now showing" on the marquee.

The AOM was located near Union Square in Manhattan. A subject related to the movie business on Union Square, with a large photograph taken in 1917 of a WW1 recruiting center in the form of a mock “Battleship”, shows the “Automatic Vaudeville” Nickelodeon. Caption quote is “Sailors doing their laundry on the Navy’s pretend battleship moored at Union Square, used for recruiting during World War I. In back is the Automatic Vaudeville penny arcade, two of whose backers — Marcus Loew and Adolph Zukor — went on to found Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Paramount Pictures after a few years in the nickelodeon ”

Here is a photo taken in January 1951 showing the Tivoli Theater, “Closed for Alterations” with marquee and vertical bearing name ‘BOWAER". The green trolley car, number 6158, is probably running on the Rte 41 Flatbush Avenue line which at this point near the end of its run is on Fulton Street. Trolleys would be gone a few months later but the BOWAER would reopen, once again as the Tivoli, the next year.View link 45

Once again Erik, thanks for the informative links and your insights on the Brooklyn Theater relating to the “1930” photograph. It would seem that the dating of the photo was an archivist’s error. Perhaps this old pre 1890 demolition photo appeared in a 1930 edition to illustrate some feature story in the “Eagle” on 24 November 1930.

In 1948-9 there was a greasy spoon restaurant,long and narrow, with a very high ceiling and brown wood fans slowly turning in the dimly lighted overhead, it was situated in the second storefront from car tracks under the ‘L" in think it was in a different building to that which is next to the 'L" in the current photo above.
It had a second and possibly a third floor with apartments from what I can recall. I would guess it dated from a time before 1930 by the furnishings. The long stone counter was on the side towards the station and tables were along the opposite wall and in the rear.
The trolleys were still running and it seemed to be frequented by motormen and shopmen from the carbarn.

The Suffolk Theater in Riverhead was constructed in the late 1930’s to show movies and was not set up for Vaudville. You may be thinking of the old Music Hall which has been restored or the long gone Riverhead Theater on west Main Street, that was located next to the corner bank, before it was torn down forty or more years ago. It may be that the Suffolk has been altered with a bigger stage, dressing rooms and necessary lighting and rigging, etc. since renovations began some years ago, but when I lasted saw a movie there before it closed, there was no facility for Vaudville.

At one time, until the mid 1930’s, its location was not far from the strand. At that time a major land fill operation was undertaken filling in an arm of Jamaica Bay and creating Marine Park. The theater, when built, was named for Nostrand Avenue which crossed King’s Highway near the site. This was Dutch territory before the Brits stole it and Van Nostrand was an old name in the new Kings County.

The Kings has a very large orchestra, divided lengthwise about half way to the stage by a lateral aisle about 12 foot wide and brass railing.

All seating forward of this asile could be yanked and the floor leveled to the elevation at the foot of the stage area. A decorative brass plated grillwork could control movement with gates at the dividing point. This would still leave about 2300 seats with excellent sight lines to stage and screen.

The new area could be fitted with dance floor and tables and operated as a high tone catering hall for weddings, dinners, etc. The kitchens, service areas, and small dining rooms and lounges with modern rest rooms of adequete capacity and legal compliance could be placed there.

The rest of theater would be restored as built. It would serve as a magnet to lure business for the catering and also provide venue for live and film events when catering for civic and social events was not booked. The problem of drawing in people to this site is a matter of promotion and transportation.

Forget public transport. Limos and fancy bus delivery from secure parking areas within 30 minutes drive time is the way to go. A new trolley line from the old Sears parking areas would provide a means of short range transport from limited local parking resources, but cost would put this in phase 2 if operations are a success. A reproduction old time trolley based on 1920’s designs can be had for about $750,000.00 dollars. Track and overhead wire would run about $1,2000,000.

The above link is in error. There is a problem with the Brooklyn Public Library website throwing flyers and not recognizing their own search terms. I originally clicked on this actual link, the text I have cut from the search return page, “Hyde and Behman’s Theater [picture] : Hyde and Behman’s Theater [picture]” while searching through a group of returns provided by use of their search facility. It displayed photo but URL was for another theater when I copied it out to post above. When I ran their own search term to get back there it came up with “not found”. There is such a photo somewhere on the BPL web site.

There is another Brooklyn Theater cited by the Brooklyn Eagle in the form of a photo dated Nov 24 1930 near the intersection of Johnston St and Washington Street. The marquee reads “HR Jacobs Brooklyn Theater”. The building appears quite old for that time, perhaps dating to the 1870’s. It can be viewed at the Brooklyn Public Library web site. It is classified as a movie theater in the description although obviously it was a legit house at one time.